Friday, August 31, 2012

Romney Speech Full of Sound and Not Much Fury

See Mitt run, see Mitt has empathy.

In all fairness to Mitt, though, it didn't have as many distortions as Paul Ryan's catastrophe. I won't mention Clint Eastwood, oops, just did.

Yet, like a lot of observers, I don't know what to make of the whole exercise known as the Republican National Convention 2012, except to feel, as an outside observer, that it didn't amount too much. It will be analyzed for its truthiness, thanks to Ryan's whoopers, and that can't be good, even if the Republican ticket's handlers said that they wouldn't be intimidated by fact-checkers (what?). In the end, no amount of misty-eyed, empathetic-looking, "I care about your family" rhetoric is going to help Romney out of the first impression of voters that he's, well, kind of a stiff and a guy with few, clear policy positions other than "I'm not Obama."

But Mr. Romney mostly repeated his five rather vague priorities for
fixing the economy, adding little meat to the gauziness of past
declarations. There was nostalgia for an earlier era of greater American
confidence, without much detail about how to achieve a restoration.
Promising to begin his presidency “with a jobs tour” — and jabbing,
inaccurately, at Mr. Obama for starting his with an “apology tour” — is
not a substitute for a serious policy.

Okay, I left out the part of the editorial that said Romney sorta, kinda did okay at other parts. Meh.

Mr. Romney’s big speech,
delivered in a treacly tone with a strange misty smile on his face
suggesting he was always about to burst into tears, was of a piece with
the rest of the convention. Republicans have offered precious little of
substance but a lot of bromides (“A free world is a more peaceful
world!”) meant to convey profundity and take passive-aggressive digs at
President Obama. But no subjects have received less attention, or been
treated with less honesty, than foreign affairs and national security —
and Mr. Romney’s banal speech was no exception.

I did leave out the part where they didn't like Romney's distortions about how the Republicans tried to help Obama succeed. Jeez.

In Tampa on Thursday night, Mitt Romney
delivered what was probably the best, most effective and most revealing
speech of his life. But the bar for that achievement was low. And while
Romney was smooth, warm and at times endearing, his speech was not
quite the command performance that might solve the lasting problem of
his personal image.

"...the lasting problem of his personal image." I think that means that he's not that likeable and doesn't have any great ideas other than me wants to be president bad.

Let's be blunt: he failed. Romney,
never an electrifying presence, couldn't generate enough wattage to
power a refrigerator light.

Romney
showed rare and genuine emotion talking about his parents. Not to get
all Freudian on you, but one wonders if he knows deep in his heart that
his kook-right pandering and hiding his tax returns would not meet with
George Romney's approval. “My folks gave us the greatest gift of all,”
Romney said, “unconditional love.” And a free ride to Harvard. And stock
options.

Okay, this is Paul Begala, a pretty partisan dude, but Newsweek put his opinion at the top of their list, and other writers were no less unkind.

After 5½ years of campaigning for president,
Willard Mitt Romney took his most important step toward telling the
American people who he is and what he stands for.

In doing so, he appeared to unify a Republican Party
that had doubted both his record and his resolve. It helped that he
brought his new best friend, a rock-ribbed conservative running mate
named Paul Davis Ryan, along for the ride.

If there are any misgivings remaining among the party faithful, their determination to run President Obama out of the White House in November may be incentive enough to join the Romney-Ryan bandwagon.

This was the kindest evaluation I saw, but then I looked for the mainstream opinion. Still, pretty tepid, eh?

One more interesting take, one I really didn't like, especially because it may be true:

Instead, Mr. Romney’s strategy was pretty clear. He was seeking to
fulfill the role of the generic Republican — a safe and unobjectionable
alternative with a nice family and a nice career – and whose main
credential is that he is not Mr. Obama, the Democratic president with
tepid approval ratings and middling economic numbers.

It may be a smart approach.

I hope not. See you later in the campaign. Next up: the Democratic National Convention. Any bets Barack Obama's speech will be better?

About the American Human

The American Human is written by Calvin Ross, a retired teacher who at various points in life has been a musician, woodworker, restaurateur, narrator, English teacher in Japan, novelist, technology journalist, and private tutor to Japanese children here in the U.S.

Happily residing in the wine country of Sonoma County north of San Francisco, Calvin has lived in the Philippines, the Netherlands, and the aforementioned Japan, as well as in Chicago, Colorado, Georgia, and many different towns in California, including, of all places, the Mojave Desert.

Calvin, you may note quickly, is a liberal progressive who doesn't think being called a socialist is all that bad, especially since he sort of would like living in Denmark if it weren't so cold. He blogs because he can.